Japanese officials scrambled on Thursday to contain the public relations fallout from reports that confidential information about Japan's nuclear plants had leaked onto the Internet through a virus on a personal computer, Reuters reported. Japan's top government spokesman pledged to take steps to protect information after data on several nuclear plants appeared online, including photographs of their interiors, details of regular inspections and repair work and names of workers. "Nuclear plants are important facilities in terms of anti-terrorist measures, security and what not, and therefore we would like to take full steps to ensure information management," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said the information was leaked through a personal computer used by an employee of a Mitsubishi subsidiary that was in charge of inspecting the plants. Mitsubishi Electric said the leak occurred at one of its subsidiaries and included information from seven Japanese electric power companies and five independent firms. --More 1057 Local Time 0757 GMT
